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Columbia Missourian

Fourth Amendment rights also extend to high schools

By AMY HAMEL, Hallsville
May 3, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CDT

Student rights? What are those? Imagine you’re a student at a local high school, wandering down the hallway and a police officer orders you to the ground while a drug dog sniffs you out. Is that abiding by student rights? A growing number of schools across the nation are subjecting their students to these kinds of actions. These schools are clearly violating their students’ Fourth Amendment rights.

Fourth Amendment rights are the protection of an individual’s freedoms, and — according to the Constitution — these rights should be protected. Schools have been checking backpacks, clothes and even bodily fluids, treating their own students like criminal suspects.

It’s completely ridiculous. Schools should respect and trust their students and focus on educating them rather than accusing them of illegal activities.

Schools are wrongfully violating their students’ Fourth Amendment rights, and I believe this is a huge problem. Sure, drug abuse is an issue, but violating students’ privacy is the wrong way to go about the issue. Our nation’s public schools should instead find other ways to encourage children to stay drug-free.